Coexisting with Urban Red Foxes: Why there Is No Other Option (Article Series)

With expanding urban sprawl in North America, encounters between wildlife and humans are occurring more frequently. Although habitat loss has reduced wildlife populations, destruction of wild lands is seldom the only reason why certain wildlife has moved into our backyards. The reasons for the increase in wildlife in many urban areas, and in particular red foxes for the purpose of this article, are more complex than simply wandering displaced animals looking for a new home. We will discuss some, but not all, of these reasons in this article.The scientific study of urban wildlife began only recently, but it’s a fast-growing field. Urban wildlife presents many challenges for wildlife management, while also providing great opportunity for education, outreach, and conservation. At this stage, coexistence seems the only viable solution; and having an educated public embrace this approach is the key to living in harmony.

AN URBAN FOX IN CANADA TROTS THROUGH A PARK IN THE CENTER OF TOWN. THE PARK ACTS AS A GREEN SPACE THAT PROVIDES COVER AND DEN SITES FOR URBAN RED FOXES.

First, some terminology.

Some wild animals are labeled ‘synanthropic species’. These species live near humans and directly benefit from human-altered environments like gardens, garbage dumps, and farms. Such areas provide critical resources such as cover (think sheds, under porches, barns), and food (for example, bird feeders, our garbage, the rodents attracted to our garbage, and non-native garden plants that provide fruit year round). Examples of synanthropic species are raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, and certain rodents. These species have learned how to exploit human-created habitats, and they thrive in a mosaic of suburbs and cities next to woodlots and fields, which provides some distance from humans, but also the close proximity that benefits them as well.

The red fox is also known as an ‘edge species’, which means they naturally occur at the borders between two habitat types, which is called an 'ecotone'. These ecotones, such as woodlands transitioning into grasslands,offer them different resources that they need to survive, which is why red foxes do not select just woodlands as their habitat. Water sources and corridors, like creeks, are also important in habitat selection. Den sites are usually found within at least 1 to 2 miles of a water source. As we will see below, humans have created habitats very similar (gardens and yards that back up to brushy or densely forested areas as an example) to their natural habitat; our human-modified environments mimic the transition zones of these selected habitats.

Why aren't red foxes true forest species and why do they prefer a transitional zone of two habitats?

As mentioned earlier, it’s a common misconception that the reason we see an influx of foxes and coyotes in our suburbs and cities is because we have supplanted their woodland homes with our development. Although habitat loss for some species is a real issue that has forced animals from their territories, synanthropic species, like the red fox, are seldom true forest animals by nature, but rather “edge species”. But why? With red foxes it has a lot to do with their primary prey.

Red foxes are opportunistic omnivores but they are primarily hunters of rodents, such as mice and voles, which live in grassy fields. In addition, insects, rabbits, hare, and birds also make up their menu; these species tend to favor the shrubby and weedy edges between forest and fields. However, red foxes also require cover and den sites that may not be available in open areas. Forests, with dense brush at its edge and hollow logs offer possible den sites and shelter. Therefore, where forest meets grassland is the ideal natural environment for the red fox. Similarly, a neighborhood with human shelters, creeks and ponds, corridors (like a road, railroad or ditches) they can travel to get from one habitat patch to another, lawns, fields of grass meeting the edge of a fragmented forested area or green space, basically provides the same resources that a natural ecocene of forest and grassland provides. And they have an added bonus of even more food resources by staying close to humans: our food waste and the rodents it attracts.

So what does all this have to do with why they are in my town?

The conclusion is that through our own expansion, city developments, and agricultural practices we have created an induced ecotone that mimics in many ways the natural ecotones where red foxes are found naturally in the wild. Human-modified areas often provide a mosaic of habitats: grass and fields where they can hunt, ditches, parks with trees and fragmented woodlands that provide cover and safety, corridors, and even denning opportunities in our green spaces and sometimes under our sheds and houses (Note: it is thought that Red Foxes may prefer a more natural setting away from high human traffic for dens, unless the lack of resources or green space is high, then they will be more likely to den under/in human infrastructure). And of course as mentioned previously, don't forget that living among humans, or in close proximity to humans, means even more food resources via our trash and the rodents drawn to it.

It's no wonder the red fox is drawn to such human-disturbed areas. And, it's no wonder they are here to stay.

Click on photos to see larger version, mouse over to read captions:

A YOUNG FOX IN CANADA EMERGES AT DUSK IN AN ECOTONAL AREA OF GREEN SPACE AND HUMAN MAINTAINED ROADS AND LOTS.

A RED FOX HUNTS IN AN OPEN GRASSY FIELD, WHICH IS PART OF THEIR HABITAT SELECTION DUE TO THE FACT THAT THESE AREAS ARE FAVORED BY THEIR PRIMARY PREY.

A CROSS FOX KIT PEEKS OUT FROM HIS DEN SITE, A MANMADE WOOD PILE.

BOOKS AND TEXTS REFERENCED FOR THIS ARTICLE:

Red Fox: The Catlike Canine by J. David Henry

Behavior of North American Mammals by Elbroch and Rinehart

The origin of recently established red fox populations in the United States: translocations or natural range expansions?, Journal of Mammalogy, 93(1):52–65, 2012

THIS ARTICLE IS ONE OF FOUR IN OUR CURRENT SERIES: Coexisting with Urban Red Foxes: Why there Is No Other Option

So now that we know why they are here and that they are here to stay, be sure to check back for Article Two of this series:Public Concerns About Red Foxes: Debunking the Myths. In this upcoming article we will debunk the most common myths, explain the pros of having red foxes in our towns, and take a look at the larger picture so we can understand why we must embrace the idea of coexistence.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR US ABOUT RED FOXES? IF SO, FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW AND WE WILL INCLUDE THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN THIS NEW SERIES:

I’ve never lived a conventional life. Things don’t happen to me in the same way or order they do for most people I know. I didn’t go to college right out of high school and graduate in four years with a degree that would guarantee me a job with benefits and a 401K. The route I chose took me 10 years before I was able to graduate college. I attended three universities and went through three majors before staying put in Philosophy. I had basically given up photography when I switched my major from it to Philosophy. Going to school for photo had unfortunately caused an aversion to the craft.

I worked and went to school mostly part-time, but pushed through full-time the past two years. During all this I was also raising my daughter on my own and had been since I was 21 years old . I worked 14 hour days on my online retail business and it was doing fairly well.

In the spring of 2007 I was running my business from home and it was doing well enough that I eventually needed more space. After many years of living in a tiny garage apartment I finally had the means to move into a real house. It was still a rental but this was a real house on a lake near the university, and perhaps one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in this city.

I chose the house because it was built in the late 1930s and there were heirloom bulbs in the messy cottage garden. I recognized the gladiolus flowers were a variety from the 1940s and the walking irises were just as old, probably passed along from a neighbor. I also chose the house because I could look out the kitchen window and see cormorants, herons and egrets on the lake through early blooming camellias that dotted the long rolling back yard. I’d always lived near water and I was excited to continue the trend for my daughter. Waterways, ponds, and lakes in Louisiana mean birds, turtles, and other fantastic critters-the kinds of things that just feel like home to me.

We had been living in the new house a month so far so we were still busy settling in and unpacking. One gorgeous Louisiana spring afternoon as we headed home, I drove into our neighborhood and as I turned the corner only a block from our house my daughter pointed and yelled, “Mom, I just saw a fox!”. I instantly slammed on the breaks and looked back; she was right. There to my left sitting in the drainage ditch between the street and the sidewalk was an adult fox. Her copper fur shown like tiny blazes of fire in the late afternoon light as it filtered through the Live Oak tree canopy above. I backed my car up slowly and stopped when we were eye to eye with her. She just stared at us; she didn’t budge. To this day I think she was the tamest, or boldest, fox I’ve ever come across.

I was locking eyes with something that looked and felt so much like a domestic dog, until I noticed her thin vertically oriented pupils. They were more cat-like than canid. At that moment I didn’t know why her pupils were shaped like that, but I saw the wildness of that animal in a way I’ve never seen it in an animal before or since. I couldn’t look away; I was completely transfixed.

Later I would learn that the shape of the fox’s pupil and the degree to which they can close down or open them is what allows them to see in dim light; its an important feature since they are largely nocturnal. Not only that, vertically oriented pupils help predators who hunt ambush style, those who hide until they attack their prey from a close distance. The pupil shape allows them to judge distance without moving their head, which for an ambush predator is vital to avoid detection from their prey. We stared each other down for a few more seconds before she very calmly disappeared into the drainage pipe.

I quickly drove home to grab my camera. All my film cameras were boxed away so all I kept around was a point and shoot that could fit in a coat pocket. Armed with my tiny camera, I pulled the car up next to the drainage pipe and out popped the adult fox. And then to our surprise out popped a fox kit too! The kit was just as bold as the mom and she looked at us curiously, sniffing the air. We watched them for a couple of minutes then they disappeared into the pipe. I took three snapshots that day.

Evening walks soon led us to the den. The fox family was making their home just a few blocks from our home underneath an old uninhabited but maintained house. The house faced the lake and was on a rather busy road, but the foxes largely used the drainage pipes to navigate the area. I remember one morning just after sunrise we drove past the fox house and noticed a small traffic jam caused by the sight of the kits playing rambunctiously outside of their den. As I slowly drove past a man in a truck opposite of me asked, “Can you believe this? Amazing isn’t it?” I smiled and nodded my head. Yes, it was quite an amazing sight.

People seemed to really enjoy this little mini-view into the wild on their way to work or school. Taking in the entire scene made me smile, but I remember being a bit concerned for their well-being at the same time. It seems for every one person who welcomes urban wildlife there is another who feels the opposite and who might be capable of trying to have the animal removed and “relocated”. The problem with this is two-fold. Removing and relocating or trapping and killing an animal from an environment just opens up the space for another animal to move in, and if the population is healthy, one will. Both of these options have always seemed pointless to me. Also, animals are territorial. Relocating an animal could dump it into another animal’s territory, immediately causing conflict.

About a week after we discovered the den location, my daughter and I sat down at the bottom of the fox house driveway at dusk to watch the fox family emerge from under the house. We sat about 15 feet from each other and kept a good distance from the den entrance. One by one they slowly started to emerge. Mom fox noticed us immediately but kept a distance and just watched us watching her babies, who ran and romped and played and chirped. The bolder kit of the litter soon took notice of my daughter, looking curiously and sniffing the air as he made his way towards her. The others followed soon after. At the time my daughter had long hair down to her waist and she used a fruit-scented shampoo. I wondered if the fruity scents of her freshly washed hair is what drew them to her.. They got closer and closer and eventually their little noses were an inch from her hair and for 20 seconds there was my daughter with a garland of coppery little foxes wrapped around her. The one thought that keep going through my mind was, ‘Why don’t you have a camera with you?’ They eventually lost interest and went back to their romping and running. My daughter was 11 at the time and I know it was an experience she’ll always remember.

After that, I remembered to bring my point and shoot with me on our next early evening walk. Keeping distance and watching to make sure I wasn’t making mom fox uncomfortable or nervous, I shot off a few pictures to document the family. The pictures are awful because of the low resolution of the tiny camera and with bad lighting it couldn't correct for, but they are still some of my favorites captured moments. They represent the last time I saw the fox family. Neighborhood talk was that the couple to the left of the fox house had them trapped and removed. I’ll never know if that happened, or if they were run off from the den, but either way we never saw them again.

The pictures also represents a very pivotal moment in my life and it’s why I feel I owe so much to the fox. After I took those snapshots that day I uploaded them to an online forum I used to journal and speak to friends on. The first response was from a Russian photographer friend of mine, “Oh these do these creatures no justice. Go and get your cameras out of storage, stop being stubborn, and start shooting again” was the gist of what he typed to me that day. And I remember thinking that he was off the mark because I was just shooting the foxes in a documentary fashion and it didn’t matter. However, I knew deep down it did matter. It mattered in the sense that I gave up something that once gave me great joy and happiness. I gave up the one thing I never got bored with and the one thing I was always hungry to learn more about. It wasn’t just a disservice to the foxes but it was a disservice to myself too. I was being stubborn and getting in my own way.

I vowed that day to start shooting again. It meant a lot at the time because I had yet to make the DSLR leap from film. I was a purist and had resisted it for some time. But that day it all became clear, and I started saving up for my first DSLR. Had none of these experiences happened, had I never moved to that house, had I never seen those foxes, I would not be doing what I do today. Photography would not be a part of my life. And yes, I came back to it in a roundabout unconventional way and “late” comparatively speaking, but as I mentioned early on--nothing I do seems to be the result of conventions. I follow my heart more often than my logic, which can sometimes result in a little bit of magic in my life.

Sometimes when I am with students at a workshop or they tell me how much they have fallen in love with photography or nature having gone through my basic photography class, a little picture of the fox family pops up in my mind. Over the past 4 years, I’ve taught hundreds of students and I wonder if I’d never had the pleasure of meeting the fox family if, photographically speaking, my students would be doing what they are doing today.

It makes me think of the term butterfly effect, with reference to chaos theory, which is defined as “the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere”. It’s not exactly the same thing, but taking from the general idea I’ve come to call all of this The Fox Effect. There are undeniable links and connections to foxes in my life and to the people around me. This new photojournalistic project of mine on canids that I’ve been formulating in my mind for almost a year now is a tribute to these inspirational creatures we call foxes and their canid relatives. It is about this effect they have had on my life and those who come into contact with them in some capacity. I hope you follow along.

I’m going to get straight to the point. I want to talk about the responsibilities we have to the wildlife with whom we share our immediate surroundings. Yes, I mean the raccoons we hear arguing in our back gardens at night, and the opossums playing dead in our accidentally open trash cans outside, and the ghostly red streak we see shooting in front of our car as we drive home on a dark evening (that we somehow know is a fox), and the coyotes singing us serenades at twilight.

I hear people often express in exasperated voices how they cannot believe they are seeing foxes or “so many” raccoons in their neighborhood. They can’t believe they live in a city and feel these animals should not be there - in the city - as well. They would rather see those wild animals in the woods where they “belong” - as if cities have always been here and these wild animals are encroaching on us, with their trees and forests. There is a disconnect in such statements. I think it comes from just not knowing the facts or from blindly believing untruths that were passed down over the years. I am mostly optimistic and feel that if people are exposed to the facts, they will see the flaws in those statements.

The first truth I want to discuss (as far as the United States is concerned) is this: the four animals mentioned above have actually benefitted from human expansion, and there are reasons they will hang around the edges, in suburbs, in small towns, and in large cities. They are even labeled "edge species", and for good reason. They learned early on that our villages, towns, and large cities provide a lot of food via our trash and the rodents that are drawn to it. That is a fact and not much is going to change that. We’ve inadvertently produced perfect conditions for these edge species to thrive!

Another fact is that removing a wild animal from a suburban or urban area, whether a single raccoon or ten raccoons, or a whole fox family, does not solve anything. What actually happens when a trapper removes an animal? Well, with his trap and animal in hand, he leaves your property and has also left a vacancy for another individual animal to occupy. If the local population of that species is healthy, another individual will fill that vacancy, sometimes overnight but certainly sooner or later. Therefore, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll notice another “pesky” critter that will “need” to be removed. Rinse and repeat.

Some people may not care much about where the wild animals they have had removed from their properties end up, but I’m sure most do to some degree. Some people may turn a blind eye and just tell themselves it was released in the woods miles away and that all is ok. After all, ignorance is bliss. But, you need to know that is rarely the case.

For instance, in some states if a coyote is trapped, the trapper has only two legal choices: euthanize it, or, if he has the proper permits, sell it to a coyote pen operation. It’s often the same for red foxes. I hear the going rate is a hundred dollars a head where I live. So, the trapper can euthanize the coyote and get nothing in return or for a hundred bucks, he can sell a coyote to a person who will put it in a penned-in property, where it will be chased and terrorized by competing hunting dogs with no place to hide and no way to escape. These competitions can last days. The coyotes and foxes will be ran to such exhaustion that they will often give up after a few hours, too tired to run anymore. At that point, the hunting dogs are more able to kill the exhausted coyote or fox (although not legally-but can you imagine trying to call off dogs from a target that is helpless in front of them?). In other words, these animals are possibly doomed to a cruel and grisly death, or at the very least a tormented existence.

Ok, so maybe now you can see that trapping and "relocating" isn’t the best idea, and in some instances - with coyotes especially – we are inadvertently producing more coyotes by culling them. For more information on this “rebound effect” see these articles below:

Maybe now you “get it”, but you still aren’t so keen with the idea of foxes or coyotes in your yard or garden. You may be wondering what one can do humanely to discourage wild canids from visiting their yards and gardens. Heck, you may be on the opposite end of the spectrum and wonder what you can do to encourage nightly visits from our wild friends (I’ll give you a hint: it is NEVER to feed them).

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER VERSION:

So, let’s talk about what one can do to encourage or discourage wildlife from one’s property, and do so in ethical and humane ways that won’t upset your neighbors, as some may likely share your same views, but some will also have differing opinions. How can we all coexist with the least amount of conflict?

Why feeding wildlife is not the best idea:

In the United States there’s a reason we see ‘DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE’ signs in city parks, on nature trails, and in national parks. For starters, feeding wildlife causes animals to lose their natural fear of humans. Although this may be fun for you, it is ultimately a selfish act. Is your feeding habit inadvertently putting the animal in danger? Are you causing these animals to cross roads they wouldn’t need to cross otherwise so they can have a tasty treat in your yard?

How do your neighbors feel about them? There will likely be some neighbors who are not so keen on having wild animals in their yards, or the leftover food cached in their gardens. The same neighbor or, maybe another one, might get frightened by a wild animal that approaches them for a handout, because it will begin to associate humans with food. Often, feeding wildlife ends badly for the animal and can make a naturally elusive animal one that is a brazen nuisance. I’ve heard all too many times the story of the disgruntled neighbor calling animal control to have the “nuisance” animal removed. Some may even leave poison out, which then endangers all animals, not just the target animal. I recently heard a story of a man in a neighborhood, only 20 minutes away from where I live, shooting coyotes out his bathroom window after he lured them to his yard with raw meat.

If food is overly plentiful due to “supplemental” feedings from humans, animals like foxes and coyotes will not disperse as they normally would in the late summer and early fall in the wild. This can cause a larger population density in a smaller area, which can result in injuries, sometimes even death, as they fight over food and territory. It also increases the likelihood of transmission of disease due to unnatural crowding.

Diseases, viruses and parasites can easily and quickly spread from animal to animal as they gather to feed in abnormally crowded conditions. If you are feeding a fox, then you are also likely attracting feral cats, raccoons, opossums, rats, etc.

Feeding wild animals from cars makes them less scared of vehicles, which just increases the chances for them to be hurt or killed in a collision.

Last, they don’t need us! Enjoy wildlife from a distance. It’s much more rewarding to observe them in their natural behavioral state. Perhaps try your hand at wildlife photography or get some binoculars.

What you can do instead of feeding wildlife to make your yard wildlife friendly:

Do not use rodent poison or traps! You can kill or hurt other wildlife or roaming pets in the process.

Plant native plants. Adapted to local conditions, natives require little care, and the insects and fruit that they produce increase populations of the prey species used by the “edge” species, all of which occasionally themselves eat insects and fruit . Staying native provides seasonal food that these animals eat in the wild. And when it’s not seasonally available, the animals will move on, as they do in the wild, to find food elsewhere. For more info, see: http://www.audubon.org/content/why-native-plants-matter

Keep chickens/rabbits in good strong enclosures that are predator proof.

I am a firm believer in the possibility of true coexistence with our wild neighbors. It's time now for a paradigm shift in the way we view predators; the recent science tells us so. It's time to look at the world and its inhabitants as a whole, with every action affecting a part of that whole, not as single, isolated, and disconnected features outside of ourselves.

How You Can Help

The Canid Project is a young organization just getting its true start in 2017. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Our educational endeavors, future projects, and our brand new Louisiana state-permitted fox rescue and rehabilitation facility are run entirely on public donations. Please consider donating to our cause: